The Supreme Court of the State of New York has upheld an earlier decision that the series should be based in the Spanish port as desired by US team Oracle.
It rejected an appeal of that judgement filed by America’s Cup holders Alinghi of Switzerland who wanted the races to be held in the United Arab Emirates.
Oracle and Alinghi have agreed that the 33rd America’s Cup set for Valencia next year will be either a five-leg or seven-leg competition instead of the the best-of-three event that has been proposed, the mayor of the Spanish port city said Friday.
An agreement in principle in this sense was reached at a meeting in the city on Thursday between representatives of the two sides, Valencia mayor Rita Barbera said.
The two sides were meeting to prepare the next edition of the sailing race in the case the New York Supreme Court cofirms next week Valencia as the location for the event as desired by Oracle of the United States.
Defending Swiss champions Alinghi want the race to take place in the port of Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates but Oracle has contested its choice in court.
Oracle, owned by American computer billionaire Larry Ellison, launched a legal challenge in 2007 that accused Alinghi, which as defending champion is charged with organising the next event, of bending the rules to give it an unfair advantage.
The New York Supreme Court ruled in April that the Cup should be settled by a one-on-one multihull duel between the two sides next February instead of the traditional fully-fledged regatta with several teams involving seven legs.
Via (AFP) & Yahoo News: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091211/sp_wl_afp/yachtingamcup_20091211171613
Valencia mayoress, Rita Barberá, announced today that Alinghi and BMW-Oracle had agreed to increase the number of America’s Cup regattas to either five or seven and that both teams had agreed to more their boats on the marina’s inner dock.
After three hours of “intensive, but productive” discussions, Barberá made the decisions public and reiterated that “with only two months to go until the competition, there was a lot of work still to be done” and also pointed out that it was still not 100% certain that Valencia would be hosting the regatta since both teams were still awaiting the outcome of Alinghi’s latest appeal.
The meeting included Tom Ehman, spokesman for BMW-Oracle; Lucien Masmejan, Alinghi’s lawyer; Gerardo Camps, vice president of Valencia city Council and Ricardo Peralta, the government’s delegate in the Comunidad Valenciana; team representatives and members of the regatta’s international jury amongst others.
It was also agreed today that a ‘reserve base’ would be negotiated in the Valencia’s commercial port, to be used if sea and weather conditions make it too dangerous to bring the boats into the marina. This means that the American team will no longer have to consider mooring its boat in Sagunto, which had been suggested.
Both teams were in agreement that the match should be disputed over more than the minimum of three races stipulated in the America’s Cup rules, but have yet to decide whether there will be five or seven in total.
The spokesman for BMW-Oracle said that the meeting had shown the “good intentions” of the part of the authorities and both teams “to ensure a fantastic 33rd America’s Cup” and confirmed that today’s meeting had been “a good launchpad”.
Via: http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/17403/americas-cup-preparations-back-on-track
The 33rd edition of the America’s Cup after two years of trials in the Supreme Court of New York, will be held in Valencia. This was agreed Wednesday evening by the representants of Alinghi Ernesto Bertarelli and Rita Barbera (Valencia Mayor).
The deal needs the signature, the competitions will be a duel between Alinghi the Defender, and BMW Oracle Challenger are staged on the waters of Valencia in the next February 2010.
The duel will begin on February 8 , 2010 and will be for the best of three races.
The New York Supreme Court today ruled that the 33rd America’s Cup, scheduled in February 2010, must take place in a venue in the Southern Hemisphere as per the strict reading of the competition’s governing document, the Deed of Gift, or in Valencia, Spain, as the only exception to that rule.
“This is a disappointing result as we were certain that Justice Cahn’s May 2008 decision allowed the Defender to chose Valencia or ‘any other location’,” said Lucien Masmejan, Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) legal counsel. “Ras Al Khaimah has put enormous time and effort into this 33rd America’s Cup project. We thank them and feel sorry for this unexpected result out of the New York court”.
“We are satisfied, however, as Justice Kornreich confirmed that the Deed of Gift Match will be conducted under SNG rules as she had already ruled in a previous court order,” added Lucien Masmejan.
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